Rarely do two public policy issues present themselves at the same time, with one offering a partial solution to the other.

But that’s exactly what happened this month. The release of the Social Security Trustees 2018 Annual Report brought a reminder of the system’s dire finances (Issue No. 1). Social Security’s total cost is projected to exceed total income, including interest, in 2018 for the first time since 1982. By 2034, Social Security will be able to pay only three-quarters of the scheduled benefits.

Juxtaposed to the warning about Social Security’s long-run solvency were images of migrant families, of children been torn away from their parents at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

Immigration (Issue No. 2) alone can’t plug the hole in the Social Security trust funds, but comprehensive immigration reform with a skills-based focus would be a step in the right direction.

“If you are worried about government finances, immigrants are part of the solution,” said Dan Griswold, co-director of the Trade and Immigration project at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.

The U.S. needs more able-bodied workers to support the increasing number of retirees. In 1960, there were five workers for every person receiving Social Security benefits. Now the worker-to-beneficiary ratio is 2.8, projected to fall to 2.1 by 2060.

When it comes to immigration that can support the federal fisc, the higher the level of education and skill set, the better.

“Foreign-born workers with a college degree who emigrate to the U.S. at age 25 pay $500,000 more in taxes than they collect in benefits over a lifetime,” Griswold said, citing a study by the National Academy of Sciences on the economic consequences of immigration. Tack on a graduate degree, and the surplus is close to $1 million. It’s “pure gravy” for the economy and the federal government, he said.

Increased immigration alone — even a program focused on admitting more high-skilled workers — can’t fix Social Security’s impending insolvency. But it would help.

Extrapolating from the assumptions in the trustees’ annual report, a 30% annual increase in immigration would eliminate 10% of the Social Security shortfall, according to Charles Blahous, who was a public trustee for Social Security and Medicare from 2010 through 2015 and is currently a senior research strategist at Mercatus.

But time is running out to fix the system.

“There is such a massive shortfall that you need to do everything: CPI reforms, cost-of-living adjustments, taxes, raising the cap on taxable wages, changing the benefits formula,” Blahous said. “The problem so big, nothing by itself will fix it.”

And that’s if lawmakers act today. If they wait much longer to address the problem, a solution will be out of reach, Blahous said.

Seemingly small policy changes can have outsized effects. For example, the elimination of the DACA program, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, reduces the number of authorized workers and projected payroll tax income slightly, producing “a small but significant net negative financial impact over the short-range,” according to the trustees’ report. The long-run effect, even with fewer individuals eligible to receive benefits, is still “a negligible net negative.”

The last attempt at comprehensive immigration reform was in 2013, when a bipartisan measure negotiated by the “Group of Eight” was approved by the Senate but died in the House. The bill provided a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, increased border security, created an e-verify program to ensure that employers didn’t offer jobs to unauthorized immigrants, and shifted immigration policy from a family-based to a skills-based system.

It is unlikely that any such measure would garner a simple, not to mention a veto-proof, majority in today’s environment. The Trump administration can’t even get its story straight as to whether separating migrant families at the southern border is, or is not, a policy designed to deter illegal immigration.

President Donald Trump talks about comprehensive immigration legislation, but his focus is on building a border wall to keep illegal immigrants out, not creating a system that provides a legal means for highly educated and skilled immigrants to come in.

Republican members of Congress aren’t likely to convince him of immigrants’ contributions to the U.S. economy. But they might point out to him that come 2034, Social Security recipients will receive a 25% across-the-board cut in benefits.

That’s just 16 years from now. And as Griswold points out, 16 years isn’t that far off — even for a politician!

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